The Bush-Gore opening round turned out to be just that, an opening round: no Mike Tyson knockout here, no roundhouse rights or jolting lefts, no memorable slips, no blood drawn. In a close race two pretty cautious characters seemed to be conserving their fire for the next time, or the time after.
Yet there they were: Bush boyish and conversational in his informal Texas talk: “man’s practicing fuzzy math,” as he said more than once; he’s a big-state provincial, an executive who’s made tough choices, who’s humble enough to have hugged a flood victim in East Texas and cried with him.
Gore sighs and chuckles with satisfaction at all the numbers he knows; no, he wouldn’t get nasty with Bush or defensive about Clinton; but just as a warning about his big bludgeon style, he hit Bush’s tax cuts for the “wealthiest one percent” ten times. With Mary McGrory and Sander Vanocur for the long view, we’re learning what we learned, this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Veteran journalists Sander Vanocur and Mary McGrory who covered the Kennedy-Nixon debates.